Regaining Hope
by Siriusly Devoted
Summary: The Deathly Hallows rewritten, involving more minor characters and a declaration of love. Some humour, some angst, a lot of meaty content. Prewarned: character deaths, though not too traumatic. BZ/GW. HG/DM.
1. Reunion

Disclaimer: Just playing with the characters JK so generously created. :). Read the whole first chappy before you decide whether it's good or not, pleaaase. R&R? :).

I seem to be getting a lot of views for chapter one but no one seems to be reading beyond that. Is it possible for anyone to tell me why? :(.

Reunion

Soft words barely carried from what was left of the doorway of the derelict cottage Draco Malfoy had found refuge in, but he heard them as if they had been whispered in his ear.

He turned to look at the girl who had spoken them slowly. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her hair a bloody, matted mess and her eyes, brown and wide with fear, but so empty, seemed to look through him instead of at him, reminiscent of their time at Hogwarts but for far different reasons.

She blinked, eyes coming into focus and her mouth finally curved into a small smile as she saw him. He was equally as dirty, equally as bloody, and, whether he knew it or not, his eyes were just as empty.

"You can come in," he gestured finally, and she noted his voice had lost its drawl and was almost... Pleasant. "I'd offer tea, but…"

She nodded in response to his offer and a silence fell.

"I meant what I said you know, when I said I loved you. Seeing you with the… With Weasley, it broke my heart,"

"Most people doubt you have one," she murmured.

"And you're not most people… Hermione," The addition of her name at the end made her look up at him, scrutinising him.

"That's the first time you've called me by my given name," she noted, "even whilst you were declaring your love,"

"It's a nice name,"

And that's when she laughed. Really laughed. She let go and let her mirth control her because it was better than feeling nothing.

"The whole world is in disarray and here we are discussing love. As if there's a future to it!"

"I believe love will prevail,"

Draco's words shut her up instantly. "Who are you, and what have you done with Draco Malfoy?" she asked in disbelief.

"I AM Draco Malfoy," he replied, not at all affronted by her reaction.

"Strangely, I don't find that hard to believe. You've changed,"

"So have you,"

"I didn't swap sides," she pointed out. "I haven't changed that much,"

He smiled slightly. "I'll make you feel again, I promise,"

She didn't have a chance to reply as a movement outside made her swing round, wand out, ready to attack.

"It's only Blaise and Red," Draco told her, adopting Blaise's nickname for his girlfriend, as both figures stepped into the cottage.

"Hermione!" a voice squealed and something small shot forward to hug her.

"Ginny?" Hermione questioned almost incredulously.

Ginny stepped back. "Yeah, it's me," she answered quietly. "If you're here, does that mean..?"

Hermione didn't know whether to nod or shake her head. Words seemed the best option. "Harry's not dead, as far as I know, but they found us, Gin, after you left and I ran. What good was I if I was also captured?"

Ginny accepted this. She had done the same. "And Ron?"

"He died a hero, Gin…"

Blaise caught the small girl as she fell to the floor weeping. He cradled her and murmured soft, comforting words and Hermione looked on.

"Is she the last Weasel…y now then?" Draco whispered to Hermione, and she was surprised to see the emotion on him, the sorrow for the wretched girl etched into his face.

"The last one alive and sane, yes," Hermione whispered back, ignoring the ache as she thought of George and Mr. Weasley in the Janus Thickey Ward at St Mungo's, the only survivors, if that's what you could call them, of a brutal attack on the Burrow.

"How, when..?" Hermione questioned, gesturing at Ginny and Blaise. Draco looked down at them with a small smile.

"They've been together almost a year, Granger. I don't know how you could have missed it,"

She looked at him, disapproving of his belittling of her even now, but soon realised he was only being honest. "Oh,"

"Blaise was never the keenest to become a Death Eater. That's why he left school as soon as the threat became a possibility. I suppose he was running, but in this game, if you don't run you don't survive,"

"And when we were attacked the first time, Ginny ran too. It was the only way she'd ever find him," Hermione realised.

"It took me months," Ginny whispered throatily. "I was just about to give up when an owl found me with a letter from Blaise, telling me where to meet him," a tear ran down her cheek and she hugged her boyfriend tightly.

"Not many people know who or what I am," Blaise explained as Hermione looked at him. "I was able to get quite close to Death Eater activity and eventually discovered that Red had run but hadn't been found. So I took an owl and I wrote her, hoping it wasn't too late," The tall boy bit his lip. "We almost got captured at our last location, it was a narrow escape, and that's how we gained Draco here,"

"It's not fun being a third wheel," Draco mumbled, and both girls managed a short laugh whilst Blaise rolled his eyes.

"I had to get out," Draco ended. "It was driving me mad, especially knowing you are a much better person than all of them, and you have muggle heritage," he told Hermione softly.

"There are lots of people missing," Hermione ignored Draco's last comment, not sure how to respond. "If we find some of them, we can build a resistance,"

Ginny untangled herself from Blaise and stood up. "Like who?"

"Luna went missing after they killed her dad, but I know the Death Eaters don't have her as I heard one of them ask another whether the Lovegood girl would be at the Burrow when they attacked as he "wouldn't mind a bit of that"", she recalled with disgust. "Seamus went into hiding with Ernie, Hannah, Lavender, Parvati and Padma when the school was attacked, Susan never came back to school and I heard somewhere she was hiding out with Wayne Hopkins, Anthony Goldstein and Lisa Turpin, Mandy Brocklehurst, Terry Boot and Michael Corner were last seen together fighting the Death Eaters in Hogsmeade before they vanished…" Hermione counted the students off on her fingers.

"What about Neville?" Ginny asked. "Dean? Justin?"

"Neville's still at the school, says as both you and Luna are missing he's the only one left to protect it and he's not going to leave the rest of the students at the mercy of the Death Eaters,"

Ginny nodded, smiling slightly at the boy's courage.

"As for the others, I really don't know, Gin. They both had to run, considering their non pureblood status,"

Both Slytherins cringed at this.

"Oh, and weirdly enough I heard from Dennis Creevey that his brother had been residing with Theo Nott since the attack,"

"Theo was even more reluctant to get involved with You-Know-Who than Blaise," Draco said. "If that were possible,"

Ginny grinned. "He must be having some fun with Colin,"

Hermione bit back a laugh. "Colin's grown up a bit since you last saw him,"

"I think we all have," Ginny replied. "I don't suppose you have the DA coins on you?"

"Sorry, Gin, they weren't the top of my priorities when I was running for my life," Hermione instantly felt sorry for her sarcastic reply but Ginny brushed it off.

"No matter, we'll just send a patronus,"

"Isn't that going to be very dangerous?" Draco asked.

"Yes," Ginny responded. She didn't elaborate and instead dug a small piece of parchment out of the pocket of her robe and disappeared through an archway into another room.

"Okay then," Draco followed her, and Blaise and Hermione shrugged at each other before doing the same. Hermione found that, strangely, she trusted Zabini even though this was the first time she had ever spoken to him. And Malfoy, well, he intrigued her. For the sake of the wizarding world, they all had to put aside their differences and learn to live together. It seemed Hermione was the one finding this the hardest, she realised, scowling to herself.

Through the archway they found Ginny bent over a small table, scribbling on the parchment with a broken quill.

"What are you writing?" Blaise asked her, and she finished with a flourish before rising to face them.

"What we want the patronus to say," She waved the parchment at them. "Now, who will each of these groups trust the most?"

"Theo will trust me the most," Blaise answered quickly. "We often discussed how much we hated being involved in this. And no offence to any of you, but he's still a Slytherin and hates Gryffindorks, and you were never very high on his like list, Draco,"

"You're dating a Gryffindork," Ginny told him dryly.

"He doesn't know that," Blaise replied.

"Yet," Draco smirked. "What's he going to do when he finds out? He'll hate all of us,"

"We need Colin. If Theo deflects, we kill him. If he decides he just doesn't want to help, he can stay but he gets no extra protection, agreed?" Ginny said. Receiving nods, she moved on.

"The Gryffindor group, Parvati and them?" she asked.

"Me," Hermione raised her hand, then looked at it quizzically and quickly lowered it.

"Alright," Ginny carried on. "Mandy, Terry and Michael?"

"I got on quite well with Boot and Corner," Draco told them.

"And that's why you refer to them by their surnames?" Hermione asked.

"I said I got on with them, not that we were best buddies," Draco retorted.

"Okay, fine! I only wanted one of us to be able to do one each so we could all do it at the same time and so the Death Eaters couldn't report seeing just one patronus in several places," she explained.

"Would it not tip them off seeing four?" Draco asked.

"They're that smart to work it out?" Ginny answered sceptically.

"Never underestimate your enemy," Hermione told her, and Ginny sighed.

"We're going to have to be smart. We'll need to like encode the message or something so only the person we are sending it to can receive it, which means we're screwed if the person we choose is dead or separated. We can't risk this more than once,"

"Then I suggest you choose a boy," Draco said, and before either girl could argue, he added, "Because IF they had been caught the girls would either be the ones killed or captured for… You get the point,"

"None of the boys would leave the girls behind!" Hermione argued.

"They would if they had no other choice," Draco replied darkly.

Fear settled in Hermione's stomach and she once again realised just how much danger she was in. How much danger they were all in.

"That leaves me with the others," Ginny carried on. "Now, what I have written here is a simple message telling the others, that we, Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger, have been reunited, along with a couple of others and we are trying to find others who are in hiding to help build our defenses for survival. Although it is dangerous to find our way back together, it is in all our best interest to try and regroup for there is strength in numbers,"

"A bit detailed, don't you think, Red," Blaise asked her.

"And where are our mentions?" Draco added.

"That's not exactly what it says," Ginny replied impatiently. "I was trying to get across to you what you should be saying to these people. And you really think anyone but the people assigned to you, Malfoy, would trust you enough to come straight to you?"

"Well, no," Draco admitted and fell silent.

"The point is, you have to remember to say in your patronus, that Hermione and I are together and looking for other survivors in hiding. If it is possible, they are to try and find their way to Spinner's End as soon as they can. Apparition is dangerous but if needs must… Tell them to stay safe. And they must be willing to fight," Ginny said with determination.

"Save the fighting talk, eh, Red?" Blaise grinned at her. She blushed before stepping back and indicating for the others to do the same.

"Are we all ready? Have you chosen who to send the message to?"

"Seamus,"

"Boot,"

"Theo, obviously,"

Ginny gave her boyfriend a dirty look. "Susan," she finished. "And Luna," she added as an afterthought and before anyone could argue she had conjured her first patronus and sent it. Her second was whisked away with the other three and all they could do was wait.

"I thought you said it was too dangerous to send more than one!" Blaise was understandably angry with Ginny.

"But Luna is important to the cause!" Ginny yelled back at him.

"So is Harry fricking Pothead but I'm not about to go sending him a patronus when I know he's on his own!"

"Save it, Blaise," Ginny told him gently. "Save it for when we face him and take it all out on them when the time comes,"

Blaise looked at her before turning and stalking out of the room. Draco shrugged, then sat himself on a sack.

"What? You're not going to go after him?" Hermione asked.

"Two things, Granger. Male and Slytherin,"

"But…"

"He's right, Hermione," Ginny cut in tiredly. "Even if he went after him, Blaise would only tell him to fuck off and he'd mean it,"

"Mmm," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Why does Spinner's End sound familiar?"

"Snape," Draco only had to say one word and it came back to her.

"He's dead then?" she asked, slightly sad at the thought.

"Not the last time I saw him," Draco replied. "He knew of my desire to leave and told me this was the best place to come if I ever needed help. When we were discovered before I told Blaise and Red and we came here,"

Hermione was fascinated at the thought of being in her former Professor's home and was itching to explore. Seeing as both Ginny and Draco were now silent and staring into space, each lost in their own thoughts, she walked through to the living room and stared at the book clad walls in awe. Though most were bound to be dark books they were probably still worth a read, especially since they were fighting the darkest wizard of all time.

"I can help you look through them, if you like," Draco said from behind her and she nodded without turning to look.

"No time like the present,"

She once again looked at the walls of books in front of her and had no idea where to start. Draco however began walking along the wall, pulling books of interest off the shelves until he ended up back to her, ten or so heavy books weighing down his arms.

"Put them down before you hurt yourself," she admonished. "And thank you," she added sincerely.

He smiled a little and lowered himself to the ground until the books tumbled out of his arms and fell safely to the floor. He then sat with them and pulled a particularly heavy one towards him, flipping the pages and muttering to himself. Hermione watched him for a while before pulling a smaller book towards her and reading the title apprehensively.

"Secrets of the Darkest Art" written in silver calligraphy stared back at her and she flipped open the cover. The two spent the rest of the daylight hours reading through the books and as the sun went down Hermione slammed shut the book she was reading and sighed desperately.

"I already know everything this book has about horcruxes!" she cried, clearly frustrated.

"Horcruxes?" Draco asked her, and an idea hit her.

"I know what we need to do!" she said excitedly and pulled him to his feet before going to find Ginny and Blaise. She found them curled up together, half naked and half asleep. She grinned at them a little before prodding Ginny awake and telling her she had a plan.

"About time!" Ginny exclaimed. "I was beginning to think I was going to have to do all the work," She dressed herself, perfectly at ease with both Hermione and Draco being able to see her naked form as she did so. Blaise only pulled a pair of dirty boxers on before indicating Hermione to continue.

"You-Know-Who split his soul into eight with the use of Horcruxes. As far as I know, two of these have already been destroyed; the diary and the ring. That leaves six more, including You-Know-Who himself. As there's no way we can kill him six times we must find the rest of the Horcruxes,"

"And how do you propose we do that?" Draco asked her blankly.

"The ring was a family heirloom and the diary was his own, they were of significance to him. Before Dumbledore died and Harry went missing they were in search of Slytherin's locket. I believe that at least two others are items of one of the founders, specifically Helga Hufflepuff's cup. It was stolen from the Smith family after the murder of Hepzibah Smith, making it likely she was the murder needed to turn it into a horcrux. However, I have no idea where it could now be. The other is probably an item of Rowena Ravenclaw's, but there is very little about her in any of the books I've read," Hermione frowned. "I suspect that Dumbledore was right in assuming that his snake is also a horcrux as she is unusually close to him at all times. And the final horcrux is most probably Harry himself," she finished, breathing heavily.

"How do you know all this?" Blaise asked.

"Harry told me, albeit reluctantly. I persuaded him that if anything happened to him then I could at least carry on the horcrux work, just in case. And now aren't we all glad I did?"

They nodded in silence. "So, where do we start?"

"The snake comes last. As soon as he knows she's dead, he's going to know we know about his horcruxes and he'll make sure they're even more protected. That's pretty much suicide,"

They all agreed with that statement.

"The last I heard about the locket was that Fletcher of the Order had stolen it from Kreacher, meaning it could be anywhere by now," Hermione sighed.

"This is a mammoth task!" Draco said, clearly irritated.

"Ready to give up already, Malfoy?" Hermione spat at him, well aware that his observation was correct.

Draco looked at her. "No,"

She looked away, stunned, and Ginny continued.

"We could always go to Fletcher," she suggested.

"We'd never find him," Hermione sighed again.

"I think we need to infiltrate the Ministry," Blaise said suddenly.

"Are you mad?" Draco asked him.

"Quite possibly," Blaise responded. "But think about it. They'll have a lot of the information we need,"

"And we're in Snape's house! Think of all the potion supplies he has, and the spells!" Hermione joined in enthusiastically. "Ooh, do you think we could brew a Polyjuice potion and disguise ourselves as Ministry members?"

"How would Polyjuice potion be of any help to us?" Draco asked.

"It's a very complex potion designed for humans to allow them to assume the form of somebody else. For it to be successful you have to combine a piece of the person you want to imitate with the potion before drinking it. Nobody in the Ministry would imagine we would be of such ability to carry it off," Hermione explained.

"Complicated," Blaise remarked.

"Do you think you can do it, Granger?"

Hermione smirked at Draco and then let out a snort of laughter.

"What's so funny?"

"I brewed it in second year, when Ron and Harry infiltrated the Slytherin common room to determine if you were Slytherin's heir,"

Draco frowned. "I don't know who's more mad, Blaise or Granger," he muttered to himself.

"You're the one talking to yourself," Ginny told him grinning. He scowled at her.

"Back to it, we need a plan,"

"Remember, we should have quite a few others to help us with this in the next couple of days,"

"We need a plan first!" Hermione almost yelled exasperatedly. "There's no point saying we have all these people to help if we don't have a plan for them to help with in the first place!"

"So, start thinking," Hermione glared at Draco, but conceded he had a point that if anyone could work out what they needed to do, it would be her.

"Come on, we are four of the brightest students in our years," Ginny said. "If we can't think of something, what chance does anyone have?"

"That's the spirit," Blaise hugged her to him.

The four settled into silence, each lost in thought. None of them seemed to have any idea where to go from here and it was getting them down. The small joy they had found in their breakthrough was quickly dissipating and instead of concentrating on possible ways to succeed in winning the war, thoughts were focused on the when rather than if of their captures and imminent deaths.

Hermione finally had a eureka-moment and looked up, eyes shining. "We already have the plan!"

"Huh?" All three of her companions looked at her blankly.

"Infiltrate the Ministry with the use of Polyjuice potion and find out as much as we can, whilst whoever is left here will practice their battle skills. We're going to need everything we've got to win this."

"That's it?" Draco asked, skeptical.

"What do you mean, that's it?" Hermione replied heatedly.

"It's just, kind of, short," Draco explained.

"Well, see if you can do better," Hermione sniffed. "Or better yet, see if you can do it on your own, Mister this-plan-is-far-too-simple-to-work,"

"This plan isn't simple," Ginny butted in thoughtfully. "There's a lot of complicated work involved. Fuck this up and we fuck everything up,"

Hermione blanched at her friend's language, but turned back to Draco and smirked. He rolled his eyes, and both Blaise and Ginny quietly laughed at their interaction.

"Sooo, what do we do now?" Hermione asked.

"Brew the Polyjuice," Blaise said confidently.

"You know it takes a month to brew?"

"We'll probably need that time to plan everything anyway,"

"Argh, why is this so frustrating!" Malfoy cried out, and not even Hermione could muster a positive response. Instead she sighed and said:

"The quicker we get on with it, the quicker it will come around. And hopefully that will be fast enough,"

"Fast enough?" Malfoy retorted, eyes flashing. "Do you know how much damage they can do in one month? My family is out there!"

"And they've been covering their own backsides well enough since before you were even born, you ignorant toad," Hermione yelled back. "Jeez, Malfoy, I know you're worried and scared, but no more than the rest of us. So stop fucking moaning and just get on with it." She finished with a snarl and stalked out of the room.

Ginny grinned and Blaise raised an eyebrow.

"She certainly told you," Blaise commented as Ginny said "And that, ladies, is how it's done,"

Malfoy flipped them both off and disappeared in the opposite direction.

It was only later, when he had calmed down a bit, that he thought about what Hermione had said about horcruxes and the founders of Hogwarts. Thinking back over the years he was sure he remembered his aunt Bellatrix bragging about old Voldie giving her both Gryffindor's sword and Hufflepuff's chalice and that they were safely stashed in her vault at Gringotts. He smirked as a plan formulated, having finally got one up on the evil old bitch.

The Malfoy family had, for generations, handed down a locket that had a lock of hair from every surviving member of the family safely stowed in it, and having been given it for his seventeenth birthday Draco had been told by his mother exactly whose hair it contained. Since it had been Narcissa and not Lucius to have handed it down to him, his mother had proceeded to put in a lock of hair of her only non-disgraced living relative, his dear old Aunt Bella. And she just happened to be the only brunette in the locket.

Eager to inform the others of his ingenious idea he returned to the main living area and was pleased to discover that Blaise and Ginny were both fully clothed and had blacked out the windows in order to light candles and were reading some of Severus' texts. Only Hermione was missing and it soon became evident why. From the direction of the kitchen came a humming sound followed by the delicious smell of something cooking. Draco's mouth drooled a little at the thought of cooked food, and Ginny sent a crooked smile in his direction before hiding it.

"I cannot believe how much of a mess that kitchen was," Hermione started, walking into the room. "Did Snape never eat when he was home?"

"Apparently not," Blaise returned, stretching and yawning sleepily.

Ginny poked his exposed stomach and giggled, then stood and walked to Hermione.

"Let's see what you've done with it then. We've been living off cold food,"

"If you insist," Hermione smiled, leading her friend into the small kitchen.

"Definitely an improvement," Ginny commented. "What are you cooking? It smells wonderful,"

"You have your mother to thank for that," Hermione smiled sadly. "She taught me every holiday I was at the Burrow after I said I couldn't cook for peanuts,"

"Hopefully you're channeling her spirit," Ginny let a single tear drop down her cheek before wiping it away. "How long?"

"Only a couple of minutes. Clear somewhere to eat. Or even find something to eat on and with?"

"My pleasure. My, Hermione, I sure am glad you're here,"

"Me too," They hugged briefly before Ginny found some old plates and cutlery and started cleaning them using a wand she had stolen from a Death Eater, thus making it less likely anyone would know it was her using it. The Death Eater had no need for it anymore, but Voldemort need not know that.

Minutes later they settled down to the first cooked meal they had had in months. Hermione had done well with what she had found and when finished the four of them sleepily made their way back into the living room. Winter approaching, it was getting cold and they feared that smoke from a fire would be seen, so resignedly agreed to huddle together to keep warm.

Malfoy took this time to tell them of his earlier breakthrough and was rewarded with sleepy compliments. He felt a sense of pride at having finally been useful for something.

"When we go to Diagon Alley to break into Gringott's, you don't think we'd be able to pick up some clothes and stuff too, do you?" Hermione murmured sleepily.

"Why not do it sooner?" Ginny asked. "We're going to need them, especially if the others are in the same condition,"

"Dangerous," was the only word Draco contributed to the conversation.

"Zabini, you're the one least sought after," Hermione sat up suddenly. "It would be easiest for you to retrieve your money from Gringott's,"

"I think it would be slightly suss if I then went and bought dozens of brand new robes for both sexes," Blaise replied sarcastically.

"Oh, a few glamour charms will fix that," Hermione waved airily. "We'll be there too, just hidden 'cause everyone's out to kill us,"

"She has a point," Ginny mumbled tiredly. "We can fix ourselves up with glamour charms but not to go to the highest security building in the country and get away with it,"

"So I'm just going to spend all my money on people I don't even like?"

"We'll pay you back after we end this," Hermione said firmly, leaving no room for discussion. As they were all pretty much asleep anyway no one had the strength to argue, and not ten minutes later they were all soundly asleep, huddled under a couple of Snape's old cloaks that they had found hiding in what they presumed was his bedroom.

Ginny woke first the next morning. The sun was weak through the window and she was reminded that it was nearing the middle of October. Thankful that it no longer snowed so much this side of Christmas in the UK, she carefully avoided the other three on her way to the kitchen. She stifled a laugh at the three of them curled together, Hermione between the boys and looking very comfortable, and instead moved to inspect what she had to cook with. Growing up with her mother, and knowing the next few months until Voldemort was defeated would be tough, she knew food was important, and she looked round in distaste. _Did _Snape ever cook when he was home?

She flicked her wand a few times, "_Scourgify_" spilling from her mouth almost subconsciously and she finished with a small smile. The place still looked dingy and dark and dirty, but it was clean enough to work in. She left the house and found the only shop still open in the run down estate Spinner's End was situated in, relieved to find it stocked bacon, sausages and eggs. Grabbing some milk as well, she went to the counter and carefully counted out the only money she and Blaise had left from the last time he had been to the bank. She understood why he was so reluctant to go back, last time had been a close escape too, but they needed the protection to survive, and this time there would be three of them there to defend him if and when everything went wrong.

Giving the cashier a small smile and a thank you, Ginny left, balancing her items in her arms for the short walk back. She found the boys awake when she returned and they gave her an appreciative look before she disappeared into the kitchen to get started. She had just finished cooking the bacon when Hermione appeared, her hair less bushy and more resembling a bird's nest. She seemed not to care however, and set to boiling the kettle for cups of tea. Somewhere in the small pack she had brought with her she had a stash of tea bags, and if she could muster the strength to smirk she would have as she remembered Malfoy's offer yesterday.

The four had not even sat down to eat when there came a loud noise from outside, and instantly the four of the them stood, backs to each other and wands out. Their eyes strained to see anything through the dim lighting of the house, but they all caught the shadow that moved round the house, disappearing round where the door was.

Breath held, hearts' thumping, hands' shaking and eyes squinting the four shuffled to the where the kitchen joined the living room and stared at the door. Despite their shaky hands they all took aim when the shadow appeared in the doorway.

"I will kill you, Creevey, if this is not the right house," they heard someone snarl. "You passed third time lucky eight houses ago!"

"Well how am I supposed to know what house it is? 'Spinner's End' is hardly an exact location," someone replied as the two figures appeared in the living room.

By now the four had worked out what was going on, and lowered their wands.

"Nott, welcome to Spinner's End," Blaise said as he stepped forward.

Nott looked up in surprise and scowled at him. "I didn't even want to come. This little brat made me!"

"You know full well I can't make you do anything!" Colin spat back at the moody Slytherin. He caught sight of Ginny and ran forward. "Oh, Ginny, I heard about what happened! Are you okay?"

"No," Ginny replied honestly, ignoring Nott's deepening scowl as he also caught sight of her, Hermione and Draco. "But I've never been more determined to bring the bastard down,"

Half an hour later they had divided the food into six equal portions and Ginny and Blaise were busy explaining to Colin and Nott what the plan so far was when there was another movement from outside. This time it was quieter and only Hermione heard it until she shushed the others. Once again they formed a circle facing outwards and looked carefully to see who was coming.

The shapes of Seamus Finnigan, Hannah Abbott, Lavender Brown, Parvati and Padma Patil brought up by Ernie Macmillan appeared and for the second time that morning tense breathes were released.

Help had arrived.


	2. Diagon Alley

Diagon Alley

Instead of immediately explaining future plans to the six new arrivals, Ginny went round collecting any spare money people carried with them in order to buy food to feed the malnourished students. She and Lavender then went and bought bread, cheese and chicken and more milk. Whilst they were gone Luna had arrived, her blonde hair more brunette with dirt and her eyes an angry blue. No longer did she rabbit on about wrack spurts, but instead she demanded to know what the battle plan was.

"I'm sorry it's not much," Ginny said as she placed the food supplies on a counter in the kitchen. "It's the best I can do for now," she grimaced.

The others did not seem to care as they greedily dug into badly made sandwiches and Ginny and Hermione only nibbled on a sandwich each whilst they contemplated the change in Luna. It was with worry and slight apprehension that they saw the sheer determination in her eyes.

After the small lunch Ginny once again took to explaining their thought out plan. All four original occupants of the house were pleased with the response, although that did not quash the feeling of why they had had to come up with it in the first place.

The six arrivals slept most of the day away and Colin insisted on doing the cooking for the evening meal as the girls had fed him that morning. Dragging Theo with him, they disappeared into the kitchen and left Hermione, Ginny, Draco and Blaise alone. The four went round the house trying to locate books on Potions (which as you can imagine would be plentiful as Snape was a Potions master), so they would be able to make a Polyjuice potion. Their whole plan was useless if they could not.

Since Draco's revelation about his aunt, Blaise's plan had been adapted so that they would infiltrate Gringotts and attempt to enter Bellatrix's vault. Draco worried whether they would need her wand, but a recent article in the Prophet Susan had brought with her showed that Bellatrix had lost her wand in a surprise attack and was willing to pay thousands of galleons for its safe return.

Flicking through several books, it was Blaise who finally found a complete set of instructions and Hermione immediately set to work. Fortunately Snape had all the ingredients in a small store-room at the back of the kitchen, and if Hermione hadn't known better, she would have said he had dabbled in his own Polyjuice recently.

By the time everyone was awake and dinner was being served Hermione had completed the beginning stages of the potion and was pleased with the progress. It would be one month before it was ready, but that time could be used to further their training, such as they did in the DA.

Seamus and Ernie offered to keep an eye out for any intruders that evening as they had slept the day away. The girls, Colin and the Slytherin boys settled down, once again huddled together under some spare cloaks and other unused items of clothing, shivering despite their closeness and the fact that today that had managed to eat.

Ernie and Seamus did not find it hard to stay awake. It was bitterly cold for a start, as warming charms did not seem to help much and they were trying to limit their use of magic. Not all of them had stolen wands that would not be easily traced back to them. The two sat together in silence. It was perhaps because of this silence that they heard Susan's arrival and both jumped to their feet and crept forward.

It wasn't until the exhausted figure fell at their feet that they realised it was a friendly intruder rather that a foe and they helped her up. Waking Hermione, who was on the outside of the huddle, they helped Susan under a cloak and Hermione moved back into place, hugging the other girl to her in an attempt to warm her up.

The next morning most of the teenagers were surprised to see Susan, who was still asleep and shivering under a couple of cloaks. Luna and Hermione lay down next to her under the cloaks to try and stop the blonde girl from shivering so violently, and it didn't take long for their combined body heat to make a difference. Most of the students sighed in relief, worried for their peer.

They ate up the remaining bread and cheese for breakfast, careful to leave some for Susan who was still sleeping away her exhaustion. It was mid-morning when she finally awoke, and the girls bundled her in a couple of cloaks before allowing her to roam. They watched in slight fascination as she scoffed down the food, pausing only to tell them that the three with her, Anthony Goldstein, Wayne Hopkins and Lisa Turpin, had been killed by Death Eaters, and by lunch time they were once again discussing their plan of action.

"I think we should go to Diagon Alley today," Luna said decisively. "We're fast running out of money, therefore food, and obviously being starving will do us no favours,"

"I agree," Ginny piped up. "I'm sorry, Blaise, but it has to be done,"

"I'll go!" Ernie volunteered. "I've felt so useless since we ran from school," he sighed.

"Me too," Colin added. "And y'know, I'm almost as good as Gin with that bat bogey," he winked, causing most of the room to laugh quietly.

"And me," Lavender stepped forward, not flinching as all eyes turned on her in surprise. "I'm fed up of being seen as someone who can't do anything. I'm not THAT bad at spell work!"

"All right," Hermione took control. "And Gin and I'll go too. We did fight at the Department of Mysteries two years ago, I think we can handle this," she said with a small smile.

"And I'm being _made_ to go," Blaise muttered sullenly.

"Speaking of which, Nott, you're kinda not involved therefore not particularly wanted by Vold- He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," Hermione looked at the moody Slytherin. "How much do you have in your account?"

"Not much," he replied shortly.

"Liar," Malfoy scoffed.

"Yeah, well, I don't see Malfoy emptying his vault for the cause either!" Nott argued.

"Yeah, because of the small matter of me being murdered by anyone even associated with the 'Dark Lord'" Malfoy rolled his eyes.

"Fine," Nott huffed, crossing his arms and turning away from the group.

"Padma, will you make sure nothing happens to the Polyjuice whilst we're gone?" Hermione asked the only Ravenclaw bar Luna present.

The Indian girl nodded and Hermione proceeded to show her the method for the potion as shown in the book Snape had.

"Will you six be alright?" Ginny asked them. "Practise the jinxes, hexes and curses you're good at. When we get back we'll work out what everyone needs to work on. Hopefully it'll work out well,"

The rest of the group nodded, and the seven going to Diagon Alley gathered a large robe each and pulled it on, trying as hard as they could to hide any tell-tale traits. They then waved farewell, told Susan not to do anything too strenuous and left with a loud pop.

They appeared just outside the Leaky Cauldron and each pulled the hood of their robes high over their head, hiding their face and hair from view. They wandered into the pub and found Tom the barman at the end of the bar. Revealing a lock of hair, Ginny looked at him from under her robe, and asked if he had a private room for them to use for a few minutes.

Recognising the red hair immediately, as they knew he would, Tom hurried the seven cloaked strangers into a side room and asked them if there was anything they needed.

"I'm sorry, Tom, but we haven't the money," Ginny said tiredly.

"Oh, no matter," Tom waved this away. "How does ham sandwiches and hot chocolate sound? Free of charge of course,"

"Thank you, Tom," Ginny sighed, grateful for his act of kindness. "We have a group of seven still in hiding, if you would be so kind as to do a pack for them too,"

"Of course," Tom replied kindly. "You're too young to be going through this. I'll do anything to help,"

All seven in the room thanked him, even Nott, although Tom didn't know that, and Tom disappeared to make up their lunch.

"Right, glamour charms," Hermione said, once again in control. "I suggest we start on some colour changing charms, see what we end up with,"

Blaise and Nott did not need to change their appearance, so Blaise simply cast a colour changing charm on Ginny's hair.

"Mm, you look less like a Weasley now," he mused. "But I hope you keep the red look,"

Ginny pushed her boyfriend lightly. "Thanks. I was planning on keeping to my natural colour, don't you worry,"

"You still look like Ginny though. Let's make your eyes blue and your hair like Luna's…"

Blaise easily cast the charms and stepped back to admire his handiwork. "Much better," he said. "As a disguise of course; I much prefer my Ginny,"

They laughed together and turned to watch as Colin struggled to turn Lavender's hair from a light brown to black. With a flick of her wand, Hermione helped him out and he thanked her, before turning back to Lavender so she could change his eyes from a deep blue to an almost black. The change it made surprised them all; and the sudden chocolate coloured hair that fell into his eyes made him look much different. Pleased with the result, attention turned to Ernie and Hermione.

Ernie's blonde hair was now a platinum blond like Malfoy's and his eyes had been made a steel grey, also reminiscent of the Malfoy's.

"Don't you think that, if Malfoy senior saw him, he'd get he was an impostor?" Blaise asked.

"And he also could get mistaken for Draco and killed on the spot," Ginny added and Hermione giggled.

"Yes, but I just wanted to see what he'd look like," With another couple of swishes of her wand, Hermione had made Ernie's hair a light brown with flecks of grey, almost like Remus Lupin's, and kept his eyes the same grey.

"Nice," she commented before allowing Ernie to change her hair to a light blonde, copying Blaise's charm on Ginny. As her eyes were already brown, the others commented on the fact that the two could now almost get away with being sisters.

"You think this is okay?" Hermione asked Blaise and Theo.

"We'll see when Tom comes back," Blaise replied, and not seconds later Tom returned carrying a large array of sandwiches on a tray.

"Where's Ginny gone?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Here," one of the blondes raised her hand and Tom looked over her in surprise.

"I wouldn't have recognised you, Miss Weasley,"

"That's the idea," she grinned, before stepping forward and relieving Tom of his burden. "Thank you so much for this Tom. We will pay you back at some point,"

"There are bottles of water, juice and a few fizzy drinks for a sugar rush in there, too," he smiled and backed out of the room.

Ginny quickly handed out a sandwich to everyone before shrinking the rest and carefully putting the pack in her robes. They didn't bother so much about hiding their magic here as it wouldn't lead the Death Eaters straight to their hideout.

The seven set off, everyone bar Ginny and Hermione again hiding themselves under their robes. The two girls instead transfigured their outfits into stylish colourful robes to give the impression they were wealthy. They gave Tom a discreet wave as they left through the door that led to the Diagon Alley entrance. Blaise tapped the brick and they watched nervously as the arch formed.

They separated, Lavender going off to look at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, Hermione and Ginny, eager to have some fun, took to eyeing the expensive robes on display at Twilfitt and Tatting's whilst pretending they both had the money to shop there but preferred not to, Ernie to look at the window display Flourish and Blotts had on, Colin to stare at the display in the Quality Quidditch Supplies window and Blaise and Nott separately making their way to the bank.

They all kept one eye on the thin crowd, looking out for either of the Slytherin boys. Fear kept Diagon Alley pretty empty even on the best of days now, so the teenagers tried not to stand out too much, but also to seem pretty immersed in whatever activity they were involved in.

Ten minutes later Blaise had reappeared and had gone into Flourish and Blotts where he could keep an eye out for Theo when he also exited the bank and they could leave.

Nott was still in the bank when several loud pops broke the relative silence of the alley. Spinning round, the five students outside immediately knew they had been discovered, and with most of them dressed in black robes, the Death Eaters probably assumed they were working with the Order and Harry therefore they were in a lot of danger.

Quickly and quietly Hermione and Ginny stunned three or four of the evil bastards before curses started firing back of them. The two girls separated, trying to form a circle around the Death Eaters, and it would have worked had a stray curse not hit Colin and he went flying back into the Quidditch store's window. Ginny gasped and firing well placed stunners she reached Colin in record time. Looking at the pale boy, she knew there was nothing she could do, and instead hid the body before resuming fighting, this time with more fierce determination.

About half the Death Eaters were down at this point, and Hermione was doing her best whilst trying to work out if Nott had come out of the bank yet. Finally seeing that he had, and that he was drawing his wand, she sighed in small relief. She smirked as his stunner hit the Death Eater she had been fighting and sent a smile in his direction before turning to the next one.

Blaise, in the meantime, had somehow managed to get from Flourish and Blott's to Madam Malkin's without being seen, and hurried her to get him twenty or so warm robes for both men and women of multiple sizes.

"We're not fussy!" he told her hurriedly, when she asked him, confused, about lengths and the like. "Just hurry, please,"

Seeing the desperation on the young boy's face, she ran around getting the best quality robes she could, handing them to Blaise who packed them into bags. She even managed to put in a few extras, such as travelling cloaks, scarves and hats, and when Blaise asked her what he owed her, she merely charged for the twenty or so robes he had originally asked for. Somehow she knew that this boy and his friends, wherever they were, were fighting against Voldemort and she would help them as much as she could.

He paid her quickly before shrinking the bags and putting them in his cloak, before he drew his wand and ran out the door without so much as a thank you. Madam Malkin didn't mind, as long as he helped with the defeat of Voldemort.

Blaise jumped into a fight Hermione had been having with two particularly large Death Eaters and the two of them took them down in no time. Before they could move on however, they were all distracted as, with a loud cry, Ernie took down a Death Eater but received an unknown purple curse to the chest and also fell to the ground. The Death Eaters merely shrugged and started cursing everyone in sight, which at this point, Ginny thought with annoyance, was only the five students.

They were doing fairly well, evenly matched against the remaining Death Eaters when two more pops sounded, and Lavender was attacked from behind by Fenrir Greyback, who bit her in the neck before letting her limp body slide down his with an evil smirk.

Suddenly the Death Eaters stopped and, with a last deranged smile at the four still standing, disappeared, including the stunned (and worse) ones, with the exception of Greyback. He stalked back over to where Lavender lay and gripped her body against his, seemingly unconcerned with the four wands trained on him. He also smiled, showing dirty, blood stained fangs, brushed Lavender's hair from her face and disappeared with her still pressed against him with a loud pop.

Ginny sighed, trembling, and fell into her boyfriend's embrace. Hermione walked over to where Ernie lay, unconscious, and leant down next to him, brushing a tendril of hair from his face. He looked like he was merely sleeping but Hermione still couldn't stop the tears from coming.

Ginny walked over to Colin, and with Blaise's help, lifted the small boy in her arms. She carried him back up to the Leaky Cauldron whilst Hermione levitated Ernie. The walk was silent. No one had anything to say. Outside the pub, which was deserted, they summoned the Knight Bus, too tired to think about anything else.

"St Mungo's, please," Hermione said, letting Nott dump a handle of money in Stan Shunpike's hand. "Then Spinner's End." The four walked up off the bus before Stan could count the money, and he shrugged before the bus set off again.

Apparently there were no other occupants on the bus as they reached St Mungo's in record time, and Hermione continued to levitate Ernie down the bus. There, she entered the visitor's entrance and simply told the voice that there was someone who needed help before leaving Ernie's unresponsive body there and re-boarding the bus. She nodded at the driver as she passed him and within seconds they were off again.

"It wasn't a total disaster," Blaise said finally. "Both Theo and I got some money out. I managed to buy a lot of robes and we won't starve,"

"I wondered where you were," Ginny mumbled. She and Blaise were curled up together, and Ginny's still blonde hair was covering the side of her face that wasn't buried in Blaise's chest.

"Three people is far too many!" Hermione cried angrily.

Nott nodded in agreement. "I'll miss that Creevey dude," he admitted quietly, not letting himself look over to where Colin's body had been carefully laid on a bed beside them.

Silence fell again. The mood was definitely sombre and Hermione couldn't help but feel relieved with the Bus dropped them off at Spinner's End. The four of them walked into Snape's house in silence. Blaise had taken over being the one to carry Colin and when they entered the living room the girls and Nott left Blaise to explain to the others what had happened, choosing instead to sit in silence and stare into space.

Ginny couldn't handle seeing Colin's body laid out on the floor, and silently she linked her fingers with Hermione and the two of them went out the back where they began to dig a grave. Soon, Nott came out to help them and they dug in complete silence. It seemed that even the birds didn't sing in this rundown estate.

They had a fairly large hole already when Luna and Seamus came out to help. Quietly they said that Blaise and Draco had gone to get some food, and that Susan and Padma were busy comforting Hannah and Parvati over the loss of their close friends.

It was dark when they finally carried Colin's body outside, and with one last tearful glance, Ginny was the first to start filling the grave. The others soon followed and the sun had set before they finished. The weary teenagers made their way inside to discover Blaise and Draco had set out a buffet for dinner, made up of the leftover meats from that morning and salad.

"To keep everyone's strength up," Blaise told Ginny softly, wrapping his arms around her. Her red hair had returned, as had Hermione's natural brunette and Blaise wrapped a piece round his little finger.

"It's going to take a little more than meat and salad," Ginny replied, pushing him away from her and sitting herself on the floor without getting anything to eat.

Hermione, having seen the exchange, made up two ham and tomato sandwiches and handed one to her friend silently, keeping the other for herself.

"I'm sorry about Colin," Hermione said after a few minutes of more silence.

"I'm sorry about Ernie. And Lavender," Ginny replied, staring at a blank spot on the wall opposite her. "They were all too young, and too _good_, to die,"

"I hate to say it, but it's for the cause," Hannah came over to the two girls. "If they hadn't been there and died, it could have been you. And none of us would be here without you,"

"Yeah," Parvati followed Hannah, her eyes still red and sniffling slightly. "Lav wouldn't want you blaming yourselves when our only chance is you and she chose to fight,"

"Don't blame yourselves," Nott added quietly from his spot a few metres away. He turned red as all eyes turned on him, but continued. "Creevey was a great kid and we will all miss him. His energy and enthusiasm was unique, but this operation can, and will, go on without him,"

Blaise manoeuvred his way to sit next to Ginny and wrapped his arms round her again. This time she didn't push him away. Hermione gave them a small smile before gesturing for the others to give them a moment.

Finding herself in the kitchen, Hermione began to clear away the leftovers, sorting out what she could put out for breakfast in the morn. Malfoy found her there, already having directed the other students to the bedroom where they would find books of useful spells for battle.

"You did good today," he said quietly from the doorway.

She stopped still for a second but didn't turn round and instead chose to continue with what she had been doing.

"I know you think that three deaths in this small group is a gigantic loss, and I won't disagree, but you can't blame yourself, Granger. You're still here to do the Polyjuice potion and we have money to take care of the survivors. We still have the spirit and the determination to beat this thing. So, yes, you should let yourself feel the deaths of your friends, but don't beat yourself up about it, because we're still here and we still need you,"

Hermione turned round. She gave him a slightly confused look before sighing and crossing her arms. "Thank you," she whispered.

He nodded once and turned to return to the bedroom. He was long gone when Hermione looked up and called after him "Malfoy!" She sighed again, somewhat glad he was out of earshot for she didn't know what she had intended to say anyway. Malfoy still confused her and she didn't know what to make of his confession of love nor of his apparently very accurate observation of her. What she did know was that she didn't hate him and that he had most definitely changed since school. She just found it sad that they both had to have a death sentence on their heads to realise that they really weren't that different after all.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by Blaise's quiet call that there was movement outside. She joined the rest of the group in the living room and they prepared to fight, Blaise, Ginny and Hermione at the forefront as they were the best fighters.

For the third time they sighed in relief when they discovered that the figures who entered the house were just a very dirty Michael Corner and Terry Boot, made to look even worse by the lack of light in the house, especially as it was now night.

Ginny ran to Michael so she could tend to a bleeding cut that ran from his cheek to his chin, whilst Terry collapsed on the floor, clearly exhausted. Hermione immediately ran back to the kitchen and pulled out the remains of the food, making sloppy sandwiches. She pulled two bottles of water out of the pack Tom had given them at the Leaky Cauldron and went back through to the living room.

She knelt by Terry and helped him into a sitting position before putting one of the open bottles of water to his mouth. He drank greedily and Hermione mopped him up before letting him sit on his own and handing him a sandwich.

"I think we've got this covered, guys," she looked up at the rest. "You can go back and look up more spells if you want?"

They nodded and left, leaving Hermione and Ginny with the boys.

"Brocklehurst's not with you?" Ginny asked Michael softly, ignoring his wince as she dabbed a wet cloth on his face.

"She got killed," Michael croaked out and Ginny's facial expression turned into one of great sympathy.

"How's Terry coping? Weren't they an item?"

"Yeah," Michael replied. "Not so good. I've never seen so much hate in one person's eyes before,"

"We lost Colin Creevey, Ernie Macmillan and Lavender Brown today," Ginny sat back, as happy as she could be that the wound was clean. She took the food and water Hermione handed to her and gave them to Michael. "We left Ernie at St Mungo's and buried Colin out the back," A single tear slipped down her cheek.

"I'm sorry," Michael laid a hand on her arm. "What about Brown?"

"Greyback took her body with him when he apparated," Ginny said furiously. "As if it wasn't enough to attack her from behind and bite her neck when she couldn't defend herself. He had to take her with him and let us know exactly what he was going to do with her, too. There was nothing we could do, and I hate myself for that,"

"Don't," Hermione said softly, she and Terry having been unashamedly listening. "Don't hate yourself, Gin,"

"Hate the monsters that did this!" Terry said to her angrily. "We will take them down, one by one, until there is nothing of their disgusting, vile, evil arses left if it's the last thing I do!"

"In time," Hermione looked at the Ravenclaw sadly. "First you need to build up your strength,"

He reluctantly agreed and allowed Hermione to place a cloak over him. She left him and went to the bedroom, where she found Luna and Malfoy looking at a book on fatal curses together. Shaking her head, she told the occupants of the room that it was probably time for bed and that it was a good idea not to have to candles burning for too long for fear of being seen by somebody who would be suspicious.

Agreeing, everyone but Luna and Malfoy left the room, and Hermione looked at them sternly. "It's not going to make a difference whether you perfect that spell tonight or in the morning. So get to bed, please,"

"No," Luna shook her head determinedly. "I need to do this,"

"It's nice that you two are bonding and all," Hermione said. "But it really is time to sleep,"

"Just because you went out and fought today doesn't mean that the rest of us are as tired," Luna spat at the bushy haired Gryffindor.

"Right, that is it. I am the oldest here and I am telling you to go to bed, NOW," Hermione said firmly. "I don't care what you do at any other time, but you will sleep when I tell you,"

Growling, Luna slammed the book shut and stalked past her friend. Malfoy looked up at her.

"Can't you just pretend to know what she's going through?"

"I don't have to pretend, Malfoy. I know exactly what she's going through. My parents are dead because of him. My second family, bar Ginny, are dead because of him. My best friend is out there somewhere and I have no idea where he is or even if he's alive, because of him. My best friend has this massive burden on his shoulders and I can't help him, because of him. And I miss my best friend so much. I miss them all. I don't know if I can do this, but I know I have to, because of him. So, really, do me a favour and just do as I ask when I ask,"

Malfoy tentatively pulled her to him and into a hug. She gratefully sank into him embrace, tears threatening to fall.

"I want to say it's going to be okay. But I don't know that. I wish I could say we'll find Potter and live happily ever after, but the chances are slim. What I do know is that you're strong and that the only reason I'm willing to do this and get through it is because of you," He rested his chin on her head.

"No, don't say that," Hermione pleaded, stepping back seconds later. "Do it for the greater good, do it to rebel against your family, but don't do it because of me,"

"Why not?" Malfoy asked, confused by her reaction.

"Because I'll never be able to repay you,"

"I don't want you to repay me," Malfoy said slowly. "If anything, this is me repaying you for being such a bastard to you all these years,"

Hermione looked startled. "Oh, okay. Well, yeah," she said awkwardly. "So, er, bed?"

Malfoy nodded. "Come on then." He followed her out of the room and they settled on opposite sides of the room.

The new robes Blaise had bought came in useful, especially for the new additions to their resistance. He had been pleased to discover the travelling cloaks and hats and scarves and freely handed them out for extra warmth. They were soon all asleep, even Luna, despite her argument that she wasn't tired. Curled up together, peaceful and contented looks on their faces, even the more tormented ones, it was hard to believe what these teenagers were going through.

This was the pure definition of social injustice.


	3. Progress

Progress

The next morning Luna was still off with Hermione, understandably, and Malfoy kept giving her looks from across the room, which she studiously ignored. What Hermione found most annoying was that Ginny noticed the tension between herself and both Luna and Malfoy, but, when the red head cornered her friend her priority was to find out what had happened with the blond Slytherin.

"So, give up the goss?" Ginny asked in a hushed whisper, a small smile playing at her lips.

"There is none!" Hermione whispered back furiously, looking back at the doorway as if one of the others would suddenly walk in.

"Nobody's going to walk in. Nobody's going to even care," Ginny told her friend seriously. "Now, what happened?"

Hermione sighed dramatically. "Nothing,"

Before Ginny could argue, she opened her mouth to add: "We talked. He tried to comfort me, and surprisingly it worked. And that's it,"

"Okay. I'll believe that. Do you realise now that what he said just might be true?"

Hermione looked up at her friend, uncertainty clouding her eyes. "Yeah," The whispered word rushed through her lips and she bit her lip the moment it ended, but Ginny saw the emotion in her eyes.

"He's not going to hurt you," Ginny told her, putting a small hand on her friend's. She smiled and left Hermione to her thoughts.

Later, Blaise and Seamus went out under the pretence of getting more food. Really, the two men had wanted to find news of Ernie. What they discovered shocked neither of them, but it was still hard to break the news to the girls that Ernie had died at St Mungo's soon after they had dropped him off. There had been nothing the Healers could do.

Hannah wept all afternoon, Parvati, Padma, Susan, Ginny and Hermione cuddled round her. None of them had dry eyes and it broke the boys' hearts to see them so hurt.

Luna had, after kissing Hannah's forehead and telling her to let it out, disappeared back to continue last night's work. It didn't take long for Draco to find and join her. This time, when night fell, Hermione didn't appear and tell them to go to bed. They continued well into the night, working by the light of the moon and finally collapsed, exhausted, on the outside of the circle of sleeping students at two am.

Ginny and Seamus on guard threw them cloaks and they settled easily, drifting into sleep quickly. Ginny and Seamus were themselves settled into a cloak, whispering quietly so as not to wake anyone.

"You trust Blaise, right?" Ginny asked suddenly, tentatively.

"Gin, you trust him. You've been with him a bloody long time already and I trust you and your judgement implicitly. So, yes, I trust Blaise," the Irishman replied.

Ginny sighed. "Good. I'm always worried someone might turn on him, y'know, especially with Draco here, too. After all, there's actually a real reason to distrust Draco, even though we shouldn't, but Blaise may simply get caught in the crossfire,"

"You think so little of your friends and classmates?" Seamus asked.

Ginny's head snapped up. "No! I'm just worried about Blaise. At least everyone else knows they can rely on each other. I just don't want our group to start causing friction with each other,"

"Couldn't it be Blaise to cause that friction?"

"He wouldn't do that. He's fed up of the fighting. You don't know him like I do. He's been through so much and what he wants is just to get along,"

"You're good for him," Seamus whispered.

"I maintain the good in him," Ginny replied. "He was neutral before I met him, and now he wants nothing more than to fight side by side with Harry to defeat the darkest wizard of all time,"

"I'm glad you're happy,"

"I don't know what happy is any more, Seamus," Ginny blinked. "But I know I feel more content that I have Blaise and Hermione here. I may have lost my family, but I dream of another. That's what keeps me going,"

She stopped suddenly, her boyfriend's arms suddenly hugging her small frame to his.

"I love you," Blaise whispered in her ear. Ginny closed her eyes and leaned back, and both men could see her cheeks glisten as she sobbed her grief silently.

There was movement and Hermione shuffled over to the three. "I'll take over for you, Gin, go get some sleep,"

Ginny nodded. "Thank you for being here, Hermione. You don't know what this means to me,"

"I can imagine it feels something akin to how grateful I am to you," Hermione smiled softly.

She took Ginny's place in the cloak with Seamus, curling into the warmth of Seamus' body.

"How are you, Seamus?"

"Tired," Seamus grinned sombrely.

"I know the feeling,"

"How are things with Malfoy?"

Hermione glanced up at him in the darkness. She could see nothing but his silhouette and ascertained by his voice that the question was safe. Questioning but not accusing.

"Confusing," she replied honestly.

"If you don't mind my asking, what happened?" Seamus ploughed on with his curiosity.

Hermione sighed. "I don't even know. He found me after the fight where Dumbledore died, and he was just staring at me for ages, not pulling his wand despite the fact I never wavered with mine. We seemed to be alone in our own little world on the third floor, and suddenly he strode towards me. I was too shocked to stun him, but he stunned me first anyway. He told me he loved me,"

"Wow," Seamus breathed.

Hermione bit her lip. "I didn't know what to do, but Snape came running in and pulled him away before I even knew what to think. It didn't seem real. And how was I supposed to believe Malfoy, of all people, was in love with me?"

"You weren't?" Seamus suggested.

Hermione looked at him again. She sighed. "I would have completely disregarded it, but… But it was the way he said it, the look on his face, the fact that his defences, his barriers were all but gone. It made me think the guy had never been more honest. And then I considered that he was just trying to mess with my mind, so I tried to forget about it,"

"Did it work?"

"No," she laughed shortly. "I didn't know if I believed him, but I know I believed the way I felt. I wanted it to be true. I don't know what's wrong with me,"

"Everybody wants to be loved,"

"But it was more than that. I wanted _Malfoy_to love me. I hadn't even entertained the thought before, but it was as if as soon as he said it, it acted as a catalyst. Then I couldn't work out whether it was actually how I felt, a spell or just the thought of having Malfoy wrapped round my little finger, y'know?"

She felt Seamus nod. "And all the time I was fighting for my life, I felt as if I was fighting for Malfoy too. Fighting for a future I wanted to have, with him. I still don't understand why. And I don't understand how he could even love me. I'm still a firm believer in that you can't fall in love with someone until you know them in a relationshippy way and have spent long enough together to honestly say you love them. Neither of which applies to mine and Malfoy's relationship,"

Seamus listened to Hermione pour her heart out and, in a way, he understood. In a world where nothing was certain, it was understandable that boundaries would be crossed, lines would blur and the impossible would become the most likely consequence.

"And then I came here and I saw him and nothing became clear then either. Although I'm more inclined to believe he is attracted to me and it's not just a ploy. But as to how and why, I have no idea,"

"Have you bothered to ask"?

Hermione paused. "Well, no. The only interaction we've had is the short conversation we had when I first arrived, where he promised he'd made me feel again, and the other night where he said everything he did was to repay me for being such a bastard the last few years,"

"So you've clarified that he does indeed like you, in some way, but you haven't bothered to clarify where it came from? Surely that would clear a lot of things up. If he doesn't know, then it's less likely to be genuine. If he can tell you why or even when, then I think he's being as honest as he can with you. He took a big risk telling you how he felt. He opened up to you. Imagine how hard it is for friends to tell you they like you. Remember how long it took you and Ron to admit your feelings. Then factor in the fact Malfoy was nowhere close to being your friend and he grew up being Lucius Malfoy's son. I suspect that being in that household was hardly encouraging towards wearing your heart on your sleeve,"

"But those points, in turn, could be evidence that this is all one big joke,"

"What would Malfoy gain through that, Hermione?"

"I don't know," she sighed heavily.

"Think about it," Seamus told her, standing and going to wake Terry for his shift. The sun was slowly rising, casting shadows on the rest of the sleeping party. It was relatively late, considering the time of year, but the inhabitants of the small house slept on. Hermione pondered over what Seamus had said. She still didn't know what to think, but concluded that part of her hesitation was due to Ron. He was gone and she had never loved him in that way, but he had still been her best friend and to fall in love with Malfoy would be… a betrayal? That she couldn't love her best friend but fell in love with their mutual foe?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Terry, who looked like he had had very little sleep. It seemed he and Hannah had taken the previous day's news the hardest, but, while Hannah accepted the group's comfort, Terry rejected any sympathy extended to him and instead attempted to distance himself from the group, as if that would save him from more pain.

After receiving no response to her greeting, Hermione shuffled to the kitchen in order to prepare breakfast for the remaining members. Although they had been able to withdraw a fair amount of money, Hermione was still hesitant in spending recklessly. She did not know if and when they would be able to withdraw more, especially if they lost the two affluent Slytherins, Blaise and Theo, the least wanted of the group. The exception was Draco, who had probably become equally as wanted by the Death Eaters as both Harry and Hermione.

It was when the smell of frying food came wafting into the room that the others began to stir. Luna came to find Hermione to clear the air between them. She did so in a matter of fact way, but Hermione accepted it nonetheless and the two girls hugged.

"You understand, don't you?" Luna asked her quietly.

"Of course I do, Luna. I was just tired and stressed and frustrated. I worry about all of us. I didn't want you to suffer at any point because you're overworking yourself now. But I do understand why you felt compelled to act as you did, and I'm sorry for the way I acted,"

Luna went off, an apple in one hand and a faint smile on her face. She disappeared back into the library, where she was followed by the rest of the girls, bar Hermione and Ginny. They sat together holding hands, thinking, until Hermione interrupted the loud silence by reciting the recipe for the Polyjuice potion.

"It's going to be almost December by the time we can enter the bank," she reaffirmed. "This had better be worth it,"

"Any effort is worth it, Hermione,"

From then on, Hermione, Ginny and Draco, with a little help from Padma, threw themselves into making sure the Polyjuice potion went perfectly.

They had already made sure that Snape had all the ingredients, and in the third week everything had been added but the lacewing flies and the shredded boomslang skin. Hermione had been worried that Snape was getting low on fluxweed when it came time to add the ingredient, but was relieved when sixteen scruples made their way into the potion without a problem. Blaise had commented at the time that he hoped Snape hadn't labelled any of the ingredients incorrectly, but Hermione, despite her dislike of her former professor, assured them that the man was a great potions master and would not have done something so stupid in his own lab.

A discussion had then commenced over whether he had had a system by which he understood which labels were which without allowing any intruders in his lab to also understand, but, by the time they had finished arguing, Hermione, Padma and Draco had unanimously agreed the ingredients were right and added the vast majority. Nothing had happened that Hermione didn't recognise from her previous experience and she was satisfied that all was well. All that was left after the boomslang skin and lacewing flies was the Extract of The-Transfigured-Being-To-Be, which Hermione had considered to be relatively easy to get, in comparison to their being able to get close enough to a stranger in order to procure hair unnoticed in the first place.

It was two days before the Polyjuice was ready that the teenagers began to plan who was going to the bank and how they were going to attain an extract of the transfigured being to be. The majority of the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins had no desire to go, but an argument then broke out as to whether Luna, Michael or Seamus was a better choice.

"I fought at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries!" Luna was yelling.

"And I'm a year ahead of you, and a bloke!" Seamus counteracted.

"I've always had better grades than you," Michael shouted over both his opponents.

Ginny and Hermione shared a glance. "You can all come,"

"The more the merrier,"

"The more there is to die," Terry muttered darkly.

Hermione cast Terry a glance but said nothing. It was obvious he was still hurting from the death of his girlfriend and she had no idea how best to comfort him. They had never been close.

"Seamus can be the brawn, Michael the brains and Luna can join us in ruthless seduction," Ginny said trying to ease the tension. She got a snort from a couple of the others and it seemed to work as everybody settled down to practice more defensive spells. Even in three short weeks they had come far with their battle skills, Hermione, Ginny and Draco helping them to better learn stances and quick movements. Michael and Padma had both been able to cast a few non-verbal spells, which is more than anyone could have hoped for.

"I don't feel comfortable with you three girls going," Blaise voiced.

"Blaise, honey," Ginny said sweetly. "We all fought against Death Eaters without any adult help, I think we can handle this,"

Blaise shook his head. "I just want you to be safe,"

"Blaise, in a world like this we can't afford to be selfish," Ginny said softly. "I know you want me to be safe, but I need to do this because it's the entire wizarding world's best shot at having a future. When it's all over, I promise then we can be selfish,"

"I need you, Red," Blaise whispered.

"I need you, too, Blaise," Ginny replied, tears filling her eyes. "We've both lost so much, and that's why I need to do this. There's no point in keeping safe now because it's never going to end unless we do something. I'm sorry I have to keep leaving you, but it's all for a good cause. And I promise I will always come back to you,"

"Don't make promises you can't keep,"

"I'm not. Because if I die, I will always be in here," She pressed her palm against his heart.

The others watched the couple hug in silence. They all had tears in their eyes, and Terry burst out in uncontrollable sobs. Hannah, Padma and Parvati attempted to comfort him and this time he allowed himself to be consoled. It had hit them all a little close to home, but they knew that Ginny was right.

Two days later saw Luna, Ginny, Hermione, Seamus and Michael outside the Leaky Cauldron. The plan so far was to take any strands of hair they could as they passed through the room. Their plan was risky, especially because then they had to enter the bank and pass by the goblins accompanied by what seemed to be Bellatrix Lestrange using these guises. Not for the first time, Hermione felt fear and doubt settle in her stomach.

Draco had given Ginny Bellatrix's hair before they left and she clutched it tightly in her pocket as she made her way to the back. The other four would follow her one by one, and she was grateful for the abundance of oversized cloaks which enabled them to remain largely hidden from view.

The others eventually joined her and they all took a gulp of the Polyjuice potion, their features immediately contorting to various shapes and colours. The end result was satisfying enough, as everyone had managed to snag a hair from someone who wasn't a total hag. Hermione didn't think it was the time to joke about her cat hair experience, and the five made their way towards the bank.

Ginny felt largely unnerved walking down Diagon Alley as Bellatrix Lestrange. She wanted nothing more than to hide away, but that would look completely out of place for the woman she was impersonating. Seeing Hermione near her, she whispered:

"Do you think this will work?"

"I haven't a clue," Hermione whispered back, a nervous croak finishing her sentence.

'Confidence boosted,' Ginny thought sarcastically. 'At least we have the perfect excuse for why I have four bodyguards,"

She entered the bank and saw her companions enter behind her but maintained a distance and appeared to be eyeing the small crowd in the bank. Striding to a goblin, Ginny attempted to clear her throat before she reached him.

"Bellatrix Lestrange," the old creature said, a half smirk, half grimace on his face.

"My vault," Ginny demanded as best she could.

"Wand?" the goblin asked.

"You know full well my wand was stolen!" Ginny screeched.

"Then what are we to do?" the goblin grinned nastily.

"I need access to my vault today. Now. The Dark Lord's orders," Ginny stated authoritatively.

"We do not answer to your 'Dark Lord'," the goblin sneered.

"Perhaps you should," Ginny said coldly. "Your status would improve,"

"We care not for status amongst human-kind!" the goblin hissed. The venom in his voice almost made Ginny recoil. Instead she fixed her features into a bored expression.

"Maybe we could come to some sort of arrangement,"

"What kind of arrangement?" the goblin asked suspiciously.

"Perhaps your species would like one of its goblin made items back?" Ginny asked, completely lost as to whether she had said the right thing and hoping Bellatrix had some available.

Evidently, she had, as the goblin's eyes lit up. "Ah, Mrs Lestrange, we may find ourselves with a deal," he purred.

She stared haughtily at him. "Get on with it then!" she ordered.

She was immediately ushered to a cart, before she turned and indicated the four standing across the foyer.

"They accompany me," she stated airily. "Since my wand was stolen, I have taken no risks and as such have escorts,"

The goblin made to argue so Ginny said desperately "You may take anything from my vault which I do not today require,"

The goblin, suspicious of the sudden niceness, if that's what you could call of it, of Bellatrix Lestrange didn't care to comment. The cart was soon filled and immediately Luna set about casting _Imperio _on the goblin. Her friends may have been more worried about her state of mind had they not needed her sudden coldness to make this work.

They travelled in silence until they reached Bellatrix's vault in the heart of Gringotts. Luna ordered the goblin to open the vault for them and they stared in awe at the contents. Luna kept the goblin busy outside as the others entered the vault cautiously.

Hermione had anticipated other anti-theft charms, and she was proved right when one item cloned as soon as Seamus had picked it up.

"Stop!" she told them. "Look for anything pertaining to what we need. We don't want to risk being drowned in gold," She added afterward, "I never thought I would say such a sentence,"

Michael eventually spotted a gold cup which looked like it could be Helga Hufflepuff's chalice and, on Hermione's affirmation, attempted to _Accio_ it. Unsurprisingly, the spell didn't work.

"I suppose I'll have to climb for it then," Ginny muttered.

"Should have brought a broom," Seamus grinned.

"Next time," Ginny replied with a smile, before eyeing the climb in front of her. "Catch me if I fall?"

Unused to the limbs she was currently sporting, Ginny's climb was slow but she eventually reached the cup. She had touched many objects along the way and the room was flooding with cloned objects so she did what Hermione had suggested should this situation occur; practise her Quidditch skills and throw the chalice to Hermione at the door. Hermione caught it with ease and Michael and Seamus were on hand to give Ginny the help to plough through the many items separating her, and now them, from the door.

"Did you spot anything else goblin made?" Ginny asked puffing when she was halfway to the door.

"Err, that shield?" Hermione suggested, pointing at an object in front of Ginny.

"Great!" Ginny said enthusiastically, swinging it up in front of her on her way past. She, Seamus and Michael finally made it to the door and told Luna to tell the goblin he had chosen the shield. His eyes were still bleary and Ginny felt sorry for him, but they were pretty much on the home stretch. They piled back into the cart and the goblin took them back up to the foyer.

Ginny, as Bellatrix, thrust the shield at him after Luna had subtly removed the spell. "Here, your chosen piece,"

She immediately strode away, not giving him a chance to respond. He narrowed his eyes at her, but looked at the shield and was satisfied that, whatever was wrong with Bellatrix Lestrange, it was none of his business.

This time Ginny and the others hurried down Diagon Alley, Ginny having whipped her cloak over her head so as not to be recognised as either herself or Bellatrix. They reached the Leaky Cauldron safely and Hermione quipped that the next time they needed money it'd be safer for them all to hide out in the bank.

Ginny muffled a giggle before the five friends apparated out to a location nearby Snape's house. They waited several minutes in case anybody had been tracking them before sighing in relief and making their way back to the house.

Even walking through the town was depressing as the houses were all boarded up and grimy, and streetlights equally as cracked and broken. They reached Spinner's End, where the majority of the houses were abandoned, and quietly made their way to Snape's residence. Padma was keeping watch and alerted the others to their return, resulting in Blaise rushing out to gather his girlfriend in a tight hug. The Polyjuice potion had worn off and Seamus held up the chalice in victory.

Draco sent Hermione a small smile when she caught his eye and she felt her lips quirk before she hurriedly looked away. There was too much going on for her to decipher her feelings for the blond Slytherin.

"Great! We've got news, too," Parvati squealed, her face void of the tears that had marred her face since Lavender's demise.

"Good and bad," her twin added.

Everybody hushed and it was down to Blaise to say "Boot left. He said too many people were dying and he didn't want to be a part of it anymore,"

"I suppose asking if you tried to stop him is a bit of a silly question," Ginny chewed her lip.

"We did," Hannah spoke up. "But I think his grief for Mandy is just too much. He wouldn't listen to anything,"

"We even tried to bodily restrain him, but he pulled his wand on us," Blaise explained. "In the end, we had to let him go,"

"He knows where we are if he wants to come back," Susan said quietly.

"Poor Terry," Hermione murmured.

"He's not the only one suffering, Hermione," Ginny reminded her. Hermione watched as her friend was pulled into another tight hug by her boyfriend, tears already forming in her eyes.

"It's been a long day for you," Padma said softly. "How about Han, Parvati and I get a start on making dinner, whilst Sue and Blaise fill you in on our other news?" Excitement filled her voice and Hermione wondered what it could possibly be, looking as confused as both Luna and Seamus.

Michael had disappeared, presumably to mourn the departure of Terry, and his friends let him go, knowing that everybody needed to grieve in their own time and in their own way.

"So, what is it?" Ginny asked curiously.

Susan just grinned and retrieved a yellowed parchment from the table, waving it at them. "We got a letter from Harry!"

Ginny and Luna gasped in shock, where Hermione stood there gaping, not quite willing to believe what she had just heard.

"What did he say?" Seamus asked eagerly.

"It was addressed to Red, but we opened it anyway. Who wouldn't recognise Hegwig, eh?" Blaise replied. It was only then that Hermione noticed the owl perched on the curtain rail and she gave a small smile.

"He wants to know where we are," Susan added.

Ginny bit her lip. "What do we tell him? If it's intercepted, we're going to be sitting ducks, and Snape could get into trouble,"

"Why not the Half Blood Prince?" Hermione suggested, briefly explaining the origins of the term.

"That might work," Luna said thoughtfully. "Are you sure no one else knows?"

"Snape gave himself the name, I doubt many others know about it,"

"I can tell you it's never circled the Death Eaters," Draco drawled from the background.

"It's settled then," Ginny said cheerfully. "Give me that parchment,"

She quickly wrote a reply and stroked Hedwig's head tenderly before tying the note to the owl. "Back to Harry, as fast as you can, old girl," Ginny said softly.

Hedwig flew off, giving a small hoot.

"Can I dare to believe it's true?" Hermione breathed.

"Can any of us?" Ginny replied rhetorically.

"What's a world without hope?" Luna asked, a familiar spark, small but still there, now evident in her eyes.

"I hate to break up your Hufflepuff moment, but Theo, Blaise and I would really appreciate it if you stopped putting Potter on a pedestal," Draco interrupted moodily.

Theo and Blaise immediately tried to look innocent, but Ginny smirked at her boyfriend anyway. "There's no need to be jealous of Harry, sweetheart. I did far more with Michael than I ever did Harry,"

She winked at Luna and Hermione as Blaise clenched his fist, glaring at his girlfriend's teasing tone.

"There are some things, Red, I don't need to know,"

"Just trying to allay your irrational fears," Ginny replied airily.

"Your innocence doesn't fool me one minute,"

"Care to take advantage then?" Ginny asked seductively, and Hermione tried not to blush as Ginny dragged her boyfriend out of the room. Luna seemed oblivious to it all, Seamus looked amused, Susan was grinning, Theo looked like he might be sick and Draco was gazing after them thoughtfully.

"Well," Theo stuttered. "I'll go see if there's any help needed in the kitchen,"

"Me too!" Susan said hurriedly, glancing at Seamus. He caught her eye and gave her a wink.

"If you don't mind, I shall accompany you to the kitchen, my lady," he said cheerily, making Susan grin and accept his arm. Theo rolled his eyes again and stalked off, muttering about bloody lovesick couples.

Luna was now gazing out the window and Draco was staring at her, making Hermione shift uncomfortably.

"Did you want something?" she asked eventually.

"No," he replied, causing Luna to smirk. She had remained only to witness another awkward moment between the two teenagers.

"Could you stop staring then?" Hermione asked snappily.

"No," he replied again.

"Take a picture then! It'll last longer," she grouched, turning away from him. Luna hid her smile as she continued to watch the scene via the reflection from the window.

"If you're offering?"

Hermione huffed and left the room without bothering to reply.

"You know, there are better ways to ascertain how she feels," Luna stated once Hermione was long out of earshot.

"I knew you were eavesdropping," Draco muttered.

"Hardly," Luna scoffed. "You knew I was here,"

Draco looked at her thoughtfully. "You stayed to give me advice, didn't you?"

"Maybe," Luna smirked.

"What if I don't need your help?"

"I'd say the wrackspurts are clouding your judgement,"

Draco rolled his eyes. "What advice would you give?"

"Talk to her. Have a conversation. There's no better way to get inside her head than to get her to know the real you. If your declaration of love wasn't enough, proving it to her will drive her crazy, and she'll need to work out how she feels, too,"

"How do you know about that?"

She tapped her nose. "Secrets," With that, she left the room and Draco couldn't figure out whether she'd left him more confused or relieved.

Nevertheless, he sought out Hermione and apologised for staring at her. She just looked at him and prepared to walk away, but he caught her arm.

"Why is it so hard for you to give me a chance?"

She pulled her arm from his grip but stayed where she was. "A chance as what?" she replied eventually.

"Anything!"

"I… I'm trying to work out how I feel. I want you to like me, but I don't know why. And… And I feel like I'm betraying Ron,"

Draco flinched at the name.

"I feel bad that I couldn't love my best friend in the way he wanted, but I'm falling for a boy I've hated for six years," she finished.

"You're… Falling for me?" Draco asked tentatively.

Hermione nodded. "It goes against all reason, but I can't seem to help it,"

"You know, Potter's parents hated each other for the first six years they were at school together. And his mother couldn't love Severus in the way he wanted, despite their being friends before Hogwarts,"

"Eerie. How do you know this?"

"Severus told me after we went on the run. He told me in the hopes he could influence me not to turn into my father,"

Hermione smiled slightly. "Little did he know you had already declared your love for me,"

"Little did he know," Draco agreed.

They stared at each other silently and Hermione licked her lips subconsciously. After what seemed like hours Draco finally reached for her, pulling her into his embrace. She looked up at him through her lashes and he leaned down to press his lips to hers. She sighed into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and he clung to her tightly before they ended the sweet kiss.

Hermione opened her eyes and smiled, seeing Draco smiling genuinely back at her. He leaned down against to kiss her more passionately, but a cry from Ginny tore them apart.

"Harry! He's here!"

Hermione flushed with excitement, but didn't forget Draco as she clutched his hand in hers.

"I don't know where this is going to go, but I'm happy to do this if you are," she said quietly. He squeezed her hand and she took this to mean he felt the same, and they walked together to the sitting room.

Harry was stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by the others. He looked tired and dishevelled but cheery and he was proudly displaying Slytherin's locket.

"Hermione!" He saw her and ran over to her, pulling her to him in one of the tightest hugs she'd ever experienced, making her let go of Draco, and she hugged him back fiercely. "I've missed you!"

"I missed you, too," she said, tears freely running down her cheeks. Once the hug ended she reached for Draco again, and Harry turned to him extending a hand.

"Welcome to the light side," Harry said neutrally, but he beamed as Draco took his hand without hesitation.

"My pleasure, Potter,"

Harry nodded at him before going off to talk to Theo and Blaise, who Ginny was insisting he meet properly, as she considered Harry more of a brother now, and, with the loss of her own family, Harry and Hermione were the closest she had to siblings and she desperately wanted Blaise to be integrated into her new family.

Dinner was eventually served and for once the atmosphere was light. They had blacked out all the windows in order to have candles lit when it was dark outside in order to properly celebrate what seemed to be the best turn of events. Even Michael had cheered up slightly, and they had all toasted those they had lost. Harry looked especially sad when he was informed of Colin, Lavender and Ernie's deaths and he resolved to avenge them, like every other person to fall before Voldemort.

They had all moved back into the sitting room, not quite ready to settle down for bed when Harry cleared his throat. Everyone's attention turned to him and he held their gaze evenly.

"As I'm sure Hermione has informed you, I have been searching for Horcruxes; four more, to be precise. I currently have in my possession Slytherin's locket. Unfortunately, it came at a price. Mundungus Fletcher was killed not long after he helped me to retrieve the locket and I had a narrow escape. However, it seems luck is on all our sides as I stand here today,"

"We recovered Hufflepuff's chalice from Bellatrix Lestrange's vault," Ginny piped up, and Harry looked shocked.

"It's a long story," Blaise said, pointing towards Hermione. "But it couldn't have been done without the Brightest Witch of her Age, and Draco,"

"We'll fill you in later," Hermione said, blushing.

Harry laughed before he turned serious again. "I have more," He made sure to have everyone's attention before continuing. "I'm not sure if you heard, but Bellatrix's wand was stolen. That was me," he stated rather proudly.

"That's what enabled us to get into Gringotts!" Seamus shouted excitedly.

"Yeah, thanks for that," Ginny added. "We couldn't have done it without you,"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Glad I could help. I was going to kill her, or at least severely maim her, but my cover was blown as soon as she realised the wand was gone and I had to get out of there,"

"Just what we need. My aunt even more angry and mental than normal," Draco muttered, and Harry had the decency to look sheepish.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time…"

"Don't worry about it. I would have done the same,"

Just as everyone was beginning to get fidgety, Harry cried out: "Wait! There's one more thing,"

Everyone stopped and looked at him once again as he reached into his bag and, with a flourish, pulled out the sword of Gryffindor.


End file.
